


A Leftist Take on Solas and The Veil (Meta)

by MagicalDragon



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen, Meta, Originally Posted on Tumblr, The Veil (Dragon Age)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 04:59:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16906563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicalDragon/pseuds/MagicalDragon
Summary: It’s this fiction that makes people shun revolutionary movements. When the status quo is constructed as neutral, the chaos and suffering that is inevitable in part of an upheaval becomes seen as worse than the status quo. This fiction allows people to forget all the suffering currently taking place and instills the mistaken belief in people that because the suffering currently taking place is part of the status quo, it isn’t as terrible as the suffering that would happen as part of changing the status quo.This perception of the status quo and of revolution also has a very clear influence on both the in-universe and out-of-universe reactions to Solas, as well as the writing of Trespasser.





	A Leftist Take on Solas and The Veil (Meta)

Society teaches us that the status quo is always a morally neutral entity. With this worldview, the non-action is a neutral choice devoid of moral implications. In reality, every non-action is an action in itself and very much carries moral implications. 

Most people can agree that if someone is being hurt, the morally correct action is to help that person. Yet we don’t apply this on a larger scale. This is likely because of a cognitive dissonance that allows us not to think about suffering that takes place far away from us as real in the same way that we think of the suffering that happens right in front of us as real. With this worldview, it’s easy to pretend not acting against the status quo is devoid of moral implications, while it does in fact carry the implications that you’re allowing suffering to go on. It is as if you’re looking the other way while someone gets hurt because helping seems too scary, too extreme - and it’s not your fault it’s happening, after all!

It’s this fiction that makes people shun revolutionary movements. When the status quo is constructed as neutral, the chaos and suffering that is inevitable in part of an upheaval becomes seen as worse than the status quo. This fiction allows people to forget all the suffering currently taking place and instills the mistaken belief in people that because the suffering currently taking place is part of the status quo, it isn’t as terrible as the suffering that would happen as part of changing the status quo.

This perception of the status quo and of revolution also has a very clear influence on both the in-universe and out-of-universe reactions to Solas, as well as the writing of _Trespasser._

Solas goal is the removal of the Veil because he created it in the first place and thus feels responsible for all the suffering its existence has caused. Even did he not feel responsible, however, the mere fact that the Veil undeniably causes suffering in Thedas would be enough reason to consider whether the world would be better off without it.

The Veil is the cause of the oppression of mages, all suffering caused by demons and, while not the direct cause of it, certainly set the scene for elven oppression. It is very much comparable to societal structures that cause suffering, such as capitalism, and just as an anti-capitalist revolution would cause chaos and suffering, so would the removal of the Veil. If one does not view the status quo as an enabler of suffering, one balks at the idea of violent change. The suffering the status quo enables is so great, however, that the suffering in the struggle to escape it becomes worthwhile. A duty, even.

The ends don’t justify the means, but the means can be necessary to reach just ends. There have always been people who have gotten their hands dirty to bring about justice. The justice they have contributed to bringing doesn’t make their hands any less dirty, but nevertheless, their actions were necessary for it. Sacrificing one’s own moral righteousness, the cleanliness of one’s hands, to make the world a better place is harsh but brave. And that is what Solas is aiming to do.

Solas has (as he sees it) two options: leave The Veil (which he created) and all the suffering its existence causes (which he feels responsible for) alone or remove The Veil, thus ending the suffering it causes, but at the price of plunging the world and everyone in it into an unknown chaos.

An unknown chaos holds the possibility of a just world, a world without all the suffering The Veil causes, a better world. That possibility makes the second option the better choice.

Of course, many believe that the suffering necessary to remove The Veil would be too great - greater than all the suffering The Veil causes and will continue to cause? - and thus find themselves opposing the option of acting. If this is the only reason for objection, however, it becomes clear that the goal is not wrong, only the method of achieving it, in which case what is needed is new method, a better one - but not a new goal.


End file.
